The Holidays
by Italian Skunk
Summary: Christmas is here, and little Ludwig stays up late waiting. He doesn't know if he got his hopes up for nothing, but Gilbert had to come back from the war eventually.


Ludwig was staring out the window, chin resting on his palm, with a tired and upset gleam in his blue eyes. His fingertips brushed tips of hair that had long fallen out of the slicked-back form he liked it in. He focused on a snowflake amongst millions, waiting for it to get lost from his vision as the wind carried it.

The child was waiting.

It was Christmas Eve, to put it simply. Outside there was a good layer of snow, and millions of footprints to show he had played in the white stuff that littered his yard earlier that day before it grew dark. If it wasn't the moon or street lamps, porch lights, or car lights giving off a dazzling pathway, it was the wonderfully decorated lights adorning every exterior of each house, including Ludwig's. The snow was still falling gently, to cover up the small footprints made that day and await for new ones. Ludwig wasn't waiting for Santa Claus, as he learned the name to be long ago, or presents under the tree, or anything related to it.

What he waited for was his older brother, Gilbert.

Gilbert had taken on full responsibility of Ludwig after their father, Nikolaus, had died from a car crash. He had help from their one cousin, Roderich, when a problem or two arose, but Gilbert was always there for his brother. Now, as Gilbert had been taken off to war a year and a half earlier and had Roderich take care of his brother, it seemed as if he always hadn't been there for Ludwig.

Standing up was beginning to kill the younger one's feet as what was supposed to be a minute or two turned into fifteen minutes, into thirty, and finally lead up to an hour. Lights in the living room finally flickered on, and Ludwig knew they would be a flaw in his plan of staying up that night if he turned them on. His cousin Roderich, with slightly ruffled dark hair from sleeping and violet eyes framed crookedly with glasses, was standing there in a big, thin-fabricated white tee-shirt and black sweatpants brought from home stood there.

"What are you doing awake at this hour? You should be asleep, aren't you tired at all?"

He wasn't startled by being caught in the very least.

Now the clock, its monotonic ticking almost lost in the crackling in the fireplace, that hung at the far side of the room only said eleven at night. He was there in his night shirt and pants since getting out of his bath, and after tossing and turning in his bed for fifteen minutes. But Roderich was older, Ludwig reasoned to himself, so it would seem late to be awake at eleven. It probably was, but he didn't care much of it, if it meant his brother might be coming home.

The small German boy knew the moment he woke up a year and a half ago, give or take, and heard Gilbert on the phone with their cousin that early, that the albino would be gone for some amount of time. He knew he was definitely right about it when Gilbert came into his room after that, silvery-white hair ruffled with bedhead but crimson eyes upset rather than mischievous. His brother was never upset. Gilbert had settled down with the boy, holding him close. Ludwig knew by the faint crackling of paper in his brother's sweatpants pocket, he just knew. That was how the rest of the day was spent, the two brothers inseparable more than ever. And the next day, instead of Gilbert coming to wake him up by playfully ripping the blankets off, Roderich was there shaking his shoulder.

"I'm not tired…" the young blonde said, in a voice that was soft and drowsy. He was like most children, being stubborn about falling asleep when their appearance clearly gave it away. Especially on Christmas with any other child, but here was Ludwig being different.

The brunette walked his way into the living room more, settling down on the couch and beckoning at him to come away from the frostbitten glass and frame to sit with him. Ludwig pulled away from where he stood on tiptoe to watch out the window, and stumbled to Roderich. The man welcomed his little cousin into his arms, where the boy snuggled into his side to get comfortable.

"I miss Gil…" he whimpered.

"I know you do, same with me. Nothing's the same without him around." Roderich tried to comfort him by rubbing his back with small patterns. It didn't help, so he kind of just stopped doing the action.

They sat together for a little bit in silence, illuminated by the Christmas tree they had put up with help from family friend Elizaveta about a week or so earlier. Ludwig stared down at his little hands that were dappled with oranges and blues and pinks.

Roderich, seeing as how the boy was focused on not falling asleep, left to make hot chocolate. When he settled back down, they sipped from their mugs as silence once again settled around them like the snow outside the house.

"I want Gil… to come back…" his voice hinted the minty chocolate beverage he had just consumed. Surely that had to make him sleepy.

The brunette smiled faintly at the child, watching him get comfortable against him once more. He watched the low-burning fire, it would be out by morning. There was a dull ring, as the clock struck midnight.

It was a new day. It was Christmas.

Roderich looked down at the little one with caring violet eyes. "Merry Christmas, Ludwig."

The child's blue eyes bore into his cousin's as he thought that over. It clicked. Christmas Eve was spent without his brother, like the year before, and that surely meant Gilbert wouldn't be coming anytime during the new day of celebration. Or maybe he was, and his way of transportation was delayed because of the snow? Was he just getting his hopes up? His little heart beat wildly in his chest, and he definitely believed that he was.

"... Merry Christmas, Roderich." he murmured.

"I have a present for you, it's up in my room. And when you wake up tomorrow, you can open the others."

Ludwig kind of wished his cousin would stop moving around when he just managed to get comfortable to leaning against another, different body. He had grown used to falling asleep against Gilbert at night, as his brother would read to him or comfort him after a nightmare, or just be there.

For a minute, the small German boy sat alone in the darkness of the living room, having turning the lights back off when Roderich came back with the hot chocolate. He played with the hem of his gray nightshirt, struggling to hold back yawning as he waited for the other to come back.

He heard something. It sounded like a car door, which he figured was a neighbor's, that was louder than the ticking clock, crackling fire, or creak in the floorboards upstairs. It was probably his cousin getting the present. Maybe from a place where he hid the present, but forgot it was there so had to rummage through everything for it.

Steps leading up to the front door had a chill running down his spine like a mouse on a windowsill. It certainly wasn't Roderich, he knew. Or perhaps he was letting his mind play tricks on him and it was nothing? He hoped so. If someone was going to rob the place, he would be the first to fall victim. The doorknob started to twist and turn, until the being on the other side figured it was locked. There was a jingle of keys on a keyring, and Ludwig simply stared with calculating blue eyes. Sleep was long forgotten.

The key chosen finally opened the mechanism in the doorknob, and the white front door swung open.

Ludwig wondered if a bag of bricks just decided to come out from nowhere and knock him down.

The figure in front of him was covered from head to toe in a scattered layer of tiny white specks of frozen water. His clothing was dark, but any light source possible gave away pale skin and… silvery hair. Red eyes glistened brightly in the darkness.

Ludwig tackled the man without a second thought, wrapping his arms around the other's legs. He lowered himself down, bag plopping down beside them. Gilbert embraced his little brother tightly, burying his face into the little crook of Ludwig's neck. His face was freezing as hell, and his brother was the perfect little portable heater at the moment. Both were grinning, and Gilbert never thought the boy could look so happy.

"Gil!"

"Hey… Merry Christmas, West."

Roderich was downstairs, leaning against the door frame that connected the kitchen to the living room as he watched the reunited siblings. He had brought Ludwig's present back.

He knew all along that the older brother was coming home in time for the holidays.

Coming home for Ludwig.

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><p><strong>AN - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! Have fun! ^^ A story from last Christmas I yanked from my dA. Enjoy and review please?**


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